Snapgene isn’t just any other bioinformatics software tool. It is a comprehensive powerhouse for molecular biology researchers. Snapgene offers many tools to streamline workflows and manage data more efficiently. This blog will specifically talk about every feature and product of SnapGene and its strengths and weaknesses of SnapGene.
Features & products of Snapgene
Snapgene has numerous products and features related to molecular cloning, including primer designing, PCR and mutagenesis, enzyme sets, file format conversion, agarose gel simulations, annotations, translations, alignment, visualization, history tracking, data management, and search.
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Molecular Cloning tool
Planning
Snapgene is best known for its molecular cloning tool. You can practically plan your molecular cloning. You will get numerous information-based windows for faster molecular cloning planning access. It helps you to identify and avoid common missteps by keeping track of details like DNA methylation and phosphorylation.
Visualization
You can create plasmid map presentations effortlessly with just a few clicks. You can generate clear, concise, customizable plasmid maps displaying restriction sites, promoters, genes of interest, and every other important feature of plasmid visualization. Then, confirm your results with a high alignment of sequencing results of your simulated construct.
Annotation
With an annotation maker, you can easily create annotations for your presentations. You can easily add text labels to your presentation wherever you want to add them, use the curated feature database, or make your own custom features.
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Alignment tool
The alignment tool allows you to validate your sequenced alignments. It also provides trustworthy algorithms for pairwise and multiple alignments, including MAFFT, MUSCLE, and T-coffee.
Agarose gel simulation
You can see an agarose gel simulation of what you will get in your lab in Snapgene. You will get a flexible configuration of all gel elements like the number of lanes, % agarose, running time, and a complete set of molecular weight markers.
Documentation
You don’t have to worry about saving your documents whenever you work. It will auto-save your sequence edit and cloning procedure. Share constructs with your lab mates to enhance collaboration and retain knowledge. You will get an “undo” step.
Snapgene viewer
The free version of Viewer allows you to view and annotate basic plasmid maps. This tool may help students.
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Primer designing
PCR
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is one of the most essential techniques of molecular biology. With the help of Snapgene, you can easily design primers that will be very useful in PCR.
Primer suggestions
You can add your desired amplicon sequence and a few needed parameters, and Snapgene will suggest a primer for you. Now, you can analyze it, and if it aligns with your experiment needs, you can use that.
Advanced features
Golden Gate cloning power
Ideal for synthetic biology, the golden gate cloning will help you assemble complex DNA constructs.
Large batch processing
Researchers work with large amounts of data most of the time. You can easily automate repetitive tasks like primer designing or restriction enzyme addition. Thus, you will minimize errors and efficiently handle multiple tasks simultaneously.
Strengths of Snapgene
- It has a very user-friendly interface, which is the biggest strength of any AI tool. Researchers already have to complete many tasks; if the interface is complicated, no researcher will show interest in such tools.
- The paid version offers a wide range of advanced features, such as in-silico cloning simulation, primer designing, and error checking. These features help researchers save significant time and resources.
- The free version allows researchers to perform basic plasmid mapping, annotation, and sharing. This is very helpful for students who don’t have lots of funds to buy and work on such complex things.
Weaknesses of Snapgene
- Cost is the most significant factor for many researchers. Because of the high prices, individual researchers and students need help affording It.
- While some researchers claim that alignment tools are not as powerful as they claimed.
Pricing
- Snapgene has two types of pricing plans. One is academic, and the other is corporate. Academic costs $1500 per year, which can be shared with ten people; if your team has five members, you can buy the same plan for $1000; if the number of teammates is two, then buy it for $500, and if it is for only you then go for $295 a year.
- The corporate plan for a membered group is $15,450; 5 membered come to $7975, 2 membered is for $3190, and one membered is for $1645.
Bottom Line
Snapgene is a very impressive software for researchers and students. People who are still studying can easily use the accessible version of primer design and a few other technologies. Still, if you work in a lab with teammates, it is advisable to buy their premium version.
FAQ
